EU Delegation Deputy Ambassador to Korea Roland Honekamp speaks throughout an International Women’s Day event in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of EU Delegation Office in Seoul
The European Union Delegation in Seoul, collectively with Sookmyung Women’s University and the Korea Foundation for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WISET), hosted an International Women’s Day event Friday highlighting the position of ladies in science and expertise.
Held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, the event introduced collectively college students, professionals and teachers to debate methods to strengthen girls’s participation in science, expertise, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) fields and to rejoice the achievements of ladies leaders in these sectors.
Women stay underrepresented in STEM globally. In Europe, girls account for about one in three STEM graduates and roughly one in 5 info and communications expertise specialists. In Korea, girls make up solely about 23.9 % of STEM doctoral graduates, one of many lowest shares amongst OECD international locations.
Organizers mentioned narrowing the gender hole in superior scientific coaching is crucial not just for equality but in addition for sustaining innovation and financial development.
The program started with a session titled “Stories from the Frontlines,” the place 4 girls from academia, business and analysis shared their profession experiences. Speakers described the challenges they confronted in male-dominated fields in addition to the alternatives that helped them succeed.
This was adopted by a panel dialogue, which centered on obstacles that restrict girls’s participation in STEM and coverage measures that would assist enhance illustration.
“Promoting women’s participation in STEM is a matter of fairness and justice, but it is also about unlocking Europe’s and Korea’s full innovative potential,” mentioned Ugo Astuto, the EU ambassador to Korea. “When women and men contribute equally to science and technology, research becomes stronger, solutions more inclusive, and societies more resilient.”
Astuto mentioned the EU helps gender equality in analysis by means of packages akin to Horizon Europe and Erasmus Plus, which fund collaborative analysis and educational exchanges.
Meanwhile, Sookmyung Women’s University President Moon Si-yeun mentioned girls scientists ought to play a number one position in shaping future innovation.
“Women in science and technology should not remain mere participants but become agents who design and lead change,” Moon mentioned, including that the college goals to domesticate inventive thinkers able to fixing complicated issues and increasing girls’s management within the subject.
Moon Aree, president of WISET, mentioned range in analysis groups is essential to scientific progress.
“Innovation in science and technology can truly be achieved only when talents with diverse perspectives participate throughout the entire research process,” she mentioned.
Korea grew to become the primary Asian nation to hitch the EU’s Horizon Europe analysis program as an related member starting Jan. 1, 2025. The partnership permits Korean researchers to take part in EU-funded tasks on the identical phrases as European companions.
Organizers mentioned cooperation underneath Horizon Europe, alongside with initiatives such because the Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowships, is predicted to strengthen EU–Korea analysis ties whereas creating extra alternatives for ladies scientists.